Huddled behind an armored police vehicle Thursday afternoon, the Torrance Police Department’s special weapons team consulted a map of West High School.

A little over half an hour earlier, a man in a white shirt had barricaded himself inside a building with a dozen students.

Suddenly, five shots rang out and the team sprang into action.

Fortunately, the guns were shooting blanks, fired by 19-year-old cadet Tony Chavez as part of a crisis training drill.

The department plans to hold such drills at all four area high schools this year.

“We would love to practice this and never have to use it, but nobody is immune to this,” said Officer Dave Crespin. “Its just like an officer who trains with his firearm. Hopefully he will never have to use it.”

On Thursday, Chavez and fellow cadets Jeff Buentgen, 21, and Kyle Timberlake, 19, applied knowledge they picked up working part time in the department to play gunmen for the drill.

“The whole point is to throw them off,” Chavez said. “If you see something you can exploit, you do it.”

After firing into the hallway, Chavez released the “hostages,” twelve student volunteers from the school’s service club and barricaded himself in the room alone.

“I knew it was a blank, but when they fired the shots it really got my adrenaline going,” said Rachel Pausch, 16, the club’s president. “I came out sounding really nervous.”

For nearly an hour, the crisis negotiation team talked with Chavez, bargaining for his surrender, while the special weapons team secured the area.

Most of the officers were tired from serving an arrest warrant early that morning in Carson, said Sgt. Rod Irvine.

But with the suspect holed-up alone at the high school, their best option was to wait. If it had been a school day, the response would have been more aggressive, Irvine said.

“You’d likely have 100 cops here in 30 minutes,” he said.

Finally, at about 3 p.m., the crisis negotiation team had a breakthrough. Cautiously, Chavez appeared in the doorway with his hands up, his jeans rolled up and pockets turned out.

Following the team’s orders, he got down on his stomach, crossed his ankles and surrendered.